Kids yesterday vs kids today

Kids yesterday vs kids today

To follow up on my concern with how much social media has impacted adult social behavior, it has also affected how kids grow up. Due to shaky economies, parents today have to work several jobs to make enough income to support their families which means that they spend much less time playing with their kids than they should, thereby leaving their kids alone or in the care of others.

When kids misbehave, the easiest way to keep them quiet and still is with a phone, tablet or computer that has applications with games that they can swipe, watch or play with keeping them entertained. Some of those apps are educational of course, but the amount of time that kids spend using electronics today has overpassed the amount of time that they spend outside climbing trees, chasing one another, interacting, eating dirt that will help strengthen their immune systems and, maybe most importantly, learning how to exercise and develop motor skills.
As a soccer coach, this habit of sitting, tweeting and being less physically active now poses a problem to my job because kids that come to practice have poor coordination and motor skills. This means that time should be taken away from fun soccer related drills and games and focused primarily on motor skills.
This is no big deal, however, what if coaches don’t take the time to do so? Kids will grow up uncoordinated and generally bad at sports which will lead them to shy away from sports as soon as they are given the chance to. All of this can lead to bad habits of sitting and avoiding physical activity which will impact overall health and lifestyles.

And then we wonder why we are catching weird diseases? This is one reason… an increase in preservatives and unhealthy ingredients being used in food products and a decrease in physical activity will lead to more sickness, obesity and more body pain among the world’s population.